Battle Action Harem Highschool Side Character Quest (No SV, you are the Waifu)

[JENTHULHU]

Omake time!
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Director's Bad Day -or, The Secret Government Conspiracy for Anna Sanchez' Mental Welfare
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Director DeVries considered the words on the datapad in front of her. Sudden signups for students wasn't all that unusual, given the sheer body of people to test for Valkyrie Core compatibility- and lord knew they needed every single one they could get- but this one was definitely unusual. Oh, she'd heard of her, anyone with sufficient clearance had, but for the girl's name to show up in paperwork on her desk… She needed to talk to someone up the chain of command.

It took a short time for the phone to be answered, during which she decided to indulge, lighting a cigarette and taking a long drag and letting it out as she heard the voice at the end, "Ah, Director, I confess I have been expecting your call."

"What exactly are you doing? Why is Anna Sanchez being enrolled here? Last I checked she was still in psychological evaluation." She demanded perhaps a bit overly harshly.

"Trust me it wasn't an easy decision, half the brass wanted to slap her into one of the Three Hundred right away, but the girl's only sixteen, and the other half of the brass are seriously worried about her being able to operate as part of a cohesive unit without the strategic grounding all Valkyries are taught. And, frankly, all psychological evaluation, from both observation and a smattering of interviews suggests the girl needs to be resocialized. Badly." He replied, with a sigh, "Damn shame what she had to go through."

She took a moment, thinking on it while savoring the cigarette, finally responding with a bit of a grimace, "I suppose you wouldn't be sending her to the school if you thought she'd be a likely danger to the students or surrounding arcology. Fine. Who's her handler going to be?"

"There isn't going to be one."

"WHAT!? You're telling me you're sending someone like that here without a handler!? You better have a damn good reason for this!" She fetched another cigarette from the pack.

"To be blunt, the psychological department is seriously concerned that a handler could be detrimental to her recovery and resocialization. While we hope she will develop into an exemplary soldier, at the same time we don't want her overly dependant on a commanding officer to make every decision for her… also, having a barely functional biological robot for humanity's best warrior wouldn't exactly be good for PR." His words were precise, direct, and worst of all, she couldn't come up with a direct protest.

"I assume you're not leaving this entirely up to chance? I know you, you have some kind of plan." She accused, taking another drag on the cigarette.

"Correct, you are familiar with the profile for Rokusabe Yukari?"

"Yes, her brother's enrolling this year as well. Girl'd do anything within her power to make sure he remains safe."

"Indeed, we're going to have her escort Miss Sanchez to Perth. We can't control everything that happens, but we can set some things up so that they're likely."

She could see it now, the girl would ask the single best Valkyrie, in the same year as her brother no less, to look after him. There was the chance she might refuse… but if she didn't, that could easily help jump-start her recovery.

"Also, the instructors will most likely give the girl another security net, I doubt we even need to tell them to treat the girl well, but you might want to give them access to pertinent parts of her file, if their authorization doesn't already give them access. Additionally, by putting her in an arcology, we can have programs compile observational footage from the near omnipresent cameras in the place, so long as we keep this observation passive, she shouldn't notice and we can essentially have her under constant evaluation, nearly twenty-four seven."

She tapped her finger on the desk some, taking another drag, before commenting, "Fine, you win you old bastard. But if things go to hell, it's on your head, not mine."

"Trust me, if I could think of a better way, I'd be taking it in a heartbeat. Just make sure things are ready. We will be watching, Director." He finished, closing the call.

Looking at the pack of cigarettes, the Director had a sinking suspicion she'd be needing more… a lot more.

(Edit: Updated headmaster to appropriate in-story Director position)

 

[UnnamedDude]

I tried to write a Setsuna thing. I have no idea how but I ended up with this monstrosity

Spoiler: Setsuna Mode Engaged

You are Setsuna Masaya.

More pertinently, you have screwed up.

You were entirely shown up. Yuka-nee, you expected that from. Anna, you were roughly prepared for, though her thoroughness in trouncing you, both in class and in the sparring match, did catch you off-guard.

But then stupid Koji had to go and burn himself out in a blaze of glory. Now he was in the clinic being treated for some very bad-looking wounds.

All in all, not a good day.

Honestly, who did he think he was, trying to act all cool after he passed out, tried to eat your hair and--and-- your face burns. You cut off the thought. It was so irritating...

...It was always like that. He never saw you as an equal. He never saw you as a person, as a partner, just as a child.

Your fist impacts with the wall. The worst part is, since you've come here, you've more and more found yourself struggling to refute it.

Anna was a monster in a Valkyrie Frame. You doubted there was anyone other than the Ace herself who could match her. Yuka-nee was... Yuka-nee. How could she not outdo the two of you, who had just gotten suited up?

For that matter, both of them were so... mature. There was something that seemed ominous behind that maturity, yes, but you highly doubt either of them would have had the number of meltdowns you do when Koji did something embarrassing. You know your outbursts are often stupid and misguided. But...

...Even Kojirou was going in full steam. You had no idea he could even do that. Judging by the results you don't think he did either. Idiot. Why did he have to go and get himself hurt? One blow to end it or not, that was just stupid and reckless and...!

Your chest shudders and heaves and produces a sound that is not quite a laugh and not quite a sob. You couldn't even tell him that. Whenever you try to say anything to him, whenever you want to share your feelings, they come out like knives. Surrounded by all these incredible people and in the middle of them is you. You, who are too scared to be honest.

You had to be better. Good enough that Koji couldn't laugh at you, good enough to stand up and fight by his side, and most of all, good enough that you wouldn't be a burden.

Good enough to keep the promise you made with your Flight.

Those thoughts plague you late into the night.

....I think I butchered it I'm sorry Avalanche senpai

 

[Dark as Silver]

Omake for Omake god.

You'd narrowed it down to three possibilities, Anna Sanchez either:

A) Had not been taking that exercise seriously, rather she'd been watching Sandra and possibly yourself rather than focusing on the Antagonists.

B) Was capable of shifting focus so fast it appeared to approach true multitasking.

C) Had some kind of AI in charge of at least some weapon systems.

Sandra had looked at the moments like at the end where the third pilot had demonstrated her considerable firepower and identified her as an ace because of it. That wasn't how aces worked; given a 300 suit most pilots could beat an ace, aces were defined by the skill they had in an ordinary suit. If someone went into a combat test carrying a nuclear weapon hoping it'd give them an edge they'd be sorely disappointed when the test got reconfigured around it.

The fact that she had such powerful and frankly strange weapons was more likely due to having some contact in a R&D lab, probably true, being some test Valkyrie would probably explain how she could have so many hours logged without having taken a combat rating test. It also explained the apparent lapse in skill that allowed the tanks to tag her at the start; she had a recently upgraded impellor field and was testing it.

So you'd reviewed the two moments she'd show her true ability. In both of them she was protecting Sandra. In the first she'd used a missile to kick up a cloud of dust obscuring Sandra from some lasers, while not tremendously effective the second was the impressive one. She'd destroyed a laser turret that'd shot Sandra, the speed of her reaction was what had led to your three possibilities.

If she'd been watching Sandra as the beam hit it'd have been trivial to trace the beam back towards the turret and shoot it, it was still a ludicrously fast reaction but not impossible for a high synch rating and some kind of integrated ultra-fast sensors. In this case she was ace level on the basis of what she would be like with familiar wingmates who she could trust to do their thing and not get shot.

The second option, that she had been cycling targets so fast that it seemed like true multitasking was another thing altogether. It implied she was likely to have missed the start of the attack on Sandra and had reacted even faster.

Finally was the cop out an AI did it. An AI could totally utilise a Valkyrie frames processing power and as you understood quantum computing would be capable of processing an infinite amount of tasks at once effectively giving it instantaneous reactions and perfect multitasking. If anyone would have one it'd be a Valkyrie from a R&D facility, she was running it through the academy, if it could pass it'd prove its own combat readiness and mass production of these could begin. But despite all these agreeing factors, you didn't feel the age of human pilots was over yet. If nothing else you'd have heard about its development, somehow, from somewhere.

Having arrived at your conclusion you set down the tablet.

"Whats your opinion then?"

"She's an Ace." A moment passed "Probably a sensory type, she never looked at anything straight on"

"It took you that long to figure out that litte?" Sandra mock gasped. "well anyway while you've been doing nothing look what I found" As you caught the flung tablet she continued "That's her official profile."

Well it looks like the test Valkyrie theory was out, you might expect her core or perhaps the location she was working at to be classified, but what was so goddam important about her date of birth or home country that a cadet wasn't cleared to know?

 

[Alfa290]

I hail from the HalkO school of omake writing and I bring gifts.

Spoiler: Left Behind

A figure in black armor stood atop a pile of rubble. Covered from the neck down in bulky armor that seemed to drink any light that came near it, only the figure's head told of the weathered man underneath. Grim eyes beheld what was left of his home.

"Colonel, the men are ready to move out again," said the man's oldest friend.

"I guess it's time then, Sergeant Major," Colonel Ford said as he turned to look at CSM Waltman. "Time to go home."

- 13 years prior -

It was chaos, plain and simple. Five hours ago it had been just another day in the rapidly recovering city that had been Las Vegas. It was still hot as hell, but what do you expect from summer time in a desert?

Aside from its tourist appeal, Las Vegas was still important on a more strategic level. The city functioned as a transportation hub courtesy of its airport, rail yards, and access to freeways. It had multiple military assets in the area to draw on to defend itself, and it also provided power to much of the southwestern US. So Califorians had complained but regardless, the city had been on a steady road to recovery five hours ago. And now most of it was little more than smoking ruins.

When the call had gone out that the city was under imminent threat of attack by an unknown enemy every person had bum rushed McCarran International Airport and the other transport hubs throughout the city. They were out of time, the enemy was at the gates.

"Sergeant, what do we do?" Specialist Ford asked.

Sergeant Miles gave him a flat look. "We hold the line, that's what. Behind us are twenty thousand civvies with a ride out of here. You bet your ass they are going to catch their flights. We've got air support on our side and those fancy Valkyries will be lending a hand."

"Do you really think it'll work Sergeant? The Valkyries I mean. Hell, most of those females have never held a weapon before, how are we supposed to trust them to win this?" Specialist Walls asked from the turret of his HMMWV.

"You don't, but every little bit helps. And if they can carry around an artillery piece to use as a weapon who the fuck are we to judge." Hefting his M4 the sergeant stayed in the slim cover of his sandbags. "Now look alive, we've got incoming."

The horizon was black with contacts. The signaliers from the 422nd did their best to maintain communications, the Cav blazed away with weapons of every caliber, and the Air Force landed air strike after air strike. But everything fell apart when the Types took the field. Comms broke down, entire platoons would disappear for no apparent reason only to reappear in a shower of gore. The line in the sand drawn by the Nevada natives was crossed and the line folded.

-----

The first month after the defeat at McCarran had been the hardest. The Valkyries had mostly managed to pull out along with a few civilians when the line collapsed, but by and large the remains of Las Vegas were on their own. Three Valkyries had stayed behind: Katelyn Gibson, Emily Berkowitz, and Amy Chow. In that first month, they turned into war machines.

We used whatever we could find to upgrade their cores. Wrecks of stealth fighters, rifles, car batteries, solar panels, and even an entire Bradley were used to see if we could get some results. Within two moths of shoving an F-22 in Gibson's core she could fly night missions through Ant infested territory without them even noticing. Berkowitz had turned a nail gun, a car battery, and a magnet into a railgun that could fire a round at Mach four. Lastly, Chow had been instrumental in converting one of the old fallout shelters into something livable for the five hundred some odd survivors.

It wasn't perfect, but it was a start.

(To Be Continued when I'm not tired.)

EDIT:

You know which series had great VAs in both English and Japanese? Madoka.

Click to shrink...

> Claiming that the Madoka dub is good.

 

[dpara]

So I thought about it a bit and sooo;

"Thank you for attending the first evaluation meeting. Before I begin please note the elevated classification levels of any material covered today, this is the last chance to leave before you fall under class 8 data security protocols.
No one, excellent let's begin. Our topic is cadet Anny Sanchez, core number unknown, Valkyrie designation Durga. We've just recently obtained high quality scans of cadet Sanchez and in sight of these higher quality scans this research group was granted.
"Yes?"
"Question, how is that possible? Regular scans are mandatory for all cadets?"
"Good question, but we are pressed for time and I want to get the work assignments done today. Please see the attached history but in short; she declined earlier attempts at getting scanned."
"Huh?"
"I know, just read the history. With that out of the way let's begin..."

..."As you can see the average muscular, skeletal and neuronal adaptions are well within the current theoretical models. Now where they are not is where it get's interesting..."
"..Identification of unknown meta-materials most heavily found in the metacarpal and cranial bone structures.."
"..Investigation of presumed secondary nervous system..."
"..the missing heart most likely replaced through continuous contraction of the entire cardiovascular system.."
"..severely reduced vestibular system, so how does she walk? I believe these structures.."
"..atypical position and composition of the cerebellum.."
"..the multiple regions mirroring parts of the visual cortex.."

 

[Highwind]

Inspiration hit and I decided to write something. Enjoy Koujirou getting Rekt by Anna.

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Koujirou wasn't sure what think of this situation.

After his first battle in the Inter-Academy Tournament, he was forced to face the truth. Even if he had won that battle in the end, it had been a very close thing, and his Murakumo was once again broken, forcing him to use a generic blade while your Valkyrie created a replacement from scratch. Indeed, it was only through trickery, quick thinking and sheer dumb luck that he had managed to continue on to the next round.

Simply put, Koujirou was just not Good Enough. Oh, he was good, good enough to defeat Shuri in their duel at least, but while she was the Golden Ace, she hadn't taken him seriously until the very end, and all other Valkyries in the tournament were on her level or better. Couple that with the fact his Valk still refused to integrate any weapon aside from her own unless they were damaged limiting his combat flexibility, it was obvious that he wouldn't be able to keep up with his opponents.

And so, he decided to ask his sister to train him during the week long break between the tournament's rounds. Unfortunately, she said she wouldn't be able to teach him much more than he already knew, but she assured him she would ask the strongest Valkyrie she knew to help him.
And so, two days later, he waited in the middle of a training area where his sister told him this Strongest Valkyrie would meet him.

And boy, was she late, he'd been waiting for over half an hour now, wondering who the heck she was and what was that she was doing to be so late.
He was reassuring himself for the fifteenth time that it was probably one of the instructors from Perth Academy, and that she was probably busy with some Very Important Business when his sensors picked up the familiar spatial distortion of another Valk entering the simulation room, but was surprised to note that she had chosen to appear very far away.

He tried to open a Comms channel, but was surprised when she refused, an even more surprise when his sensors were attacked by heavy Wide-area Jamming, but not before they told him she was approaching his position at a very low altitude and just above Mach one.
In less than two seconds she was on top of him, and she suddenly stopped just a couple hundred meters away from him. The wind that came in her wake, however, did not stop, and hit him like a hammer.

Briefly disoriented by the sheer force of the gale, he almost didn't manage to teleport away from what appeared to be an Axe kick propelled by what seemed to be plasma thrusters.
He reoriented himself in mid-air and looked warily at the immense dust cloud created by the attack, preparing to dodge again and trying to use his sensors to identify where his opponent was. Unsurprisingly, his Valk notified that she still couldn't pierce the jamming effect.

He waited for half a minute, but no attack came. Still, he kept his guard up until the dust settled down and he saw his opponent in the middle of a crater, staring back at him.
Koujirou couldn't help but flinch. The Smooth, pitch black armor plates and back swept horns of the Valkyrie in front of him left no doubt of who he was facing. Durga stood unmoving before him like a demon straight out of hell, without any weapons materialized but he didn't think for a second that made her any less deadly.

He knew Anna, and he knew how she fought. He knew she could go from Zero to Murder faster than he could materialize his sword, and he also knew she didn't need any weapons to completely destroy him. So this is what his sister meant when she said she'd ask the strongest Valkyrie she knew, and of course, that could be no one other than the girl who could singlehandedly defeat a small army of simulated antagonists, and who could break a plasma covered blade with flicking her fucking thumb.

Yes, he was still salty over that. He idly wondered how his sister had managed to convince her to train him. Anna hated fighting other humans.

Koujirou was shaken from his thoughts and feeling of impending doom when Anna suddenly lifted her arm. He tensed and prepared to dodge the hail of plasma and death that was obviously in the wake of any of her movements when he noticed she was just waving at him. He stared at her in confusion before awkwardly returning the gesture while his Valk opened a Comms channel.

"It's good to see I won't have to train your reflexes, Koujirou." What. "When Yukari asked me to help you in your training she did not inform me of what we would need to focus on."

The Japanese teenager was incredulous "You're telling me you almost trampled me with a faster than sound charge and tried split me in half with the mother of all kicks, just to test my reflexes?"

He saw Durga's horned helmet tilt to the side "...Yes?" She seemed to be about as confused by his question as he was by the whole situation. "I thought I gave you too much warning with my charge, so I stopped halfway and decided to teleport next to you and give you a quick kick." she continued, as if that explained everything.

He felt a headache coming and raised his palm over his face, and then cursed when he remembered he couldn't massage his temples because the damn helmet was in the way. He had quickly learnt that whenever Anna started to act like this, it was best to just go with the flow and not think too hard. "All right," He said, slowly lowering himself to the ground. "What do you want to focus on?"

"Ah." Her voice seemed to brighten a bit. "I was watching your last few fights, and I noticed you seem to favor Zero-range combat, as well as swordsmanship. I'd like to test your skills in that area for now." She explained.

Koujirou nodded and tried to ignore the chill running down his spine. "All right. No sense in wasting time then." He took a few steps back and assumed a loose kendo stance, while Anna walked out of the crater which, he reminded himself, she had made with a single fucking kick.
That feeling of Impending Doom returned when Anna took her stance, and it only increased in intensity when he noticed her gauntlets and greaves subtly changed.

She quickly gestured for him to come at her, to which he responded with a boost of his thrusters. With a twist of his Impeller Field, he teleported close to her and slashed upwards. He was utterly unsurprised when she deflected her strike with her right arm and shifted a bit to the side, making him overshoot her position and completely miss the follow-up shoulder check he planned.

When he came to a stop and turned, ready to parry her counter-strike, he saw she hadn't moved from her position at all, only turning around to look straight at him. Even her stance was exactly the same.

'...So it's going to be that kind of training, huh?' He thought, and charged again, this time going for a horizontal slash. Anna parried his strike again, with enough strength to completely stop his momentum. He stumbled and quickly boosted back to avoid a strike that never came.
Anna seemed content with parrying and blocking strikes, not moving a centimeter away from her position.

He lingered where he was for a moment, examining her stance. It seemed to be a fairly generic "martial arts" stance, with both feet set firmly on the ground and slightly apart from each other while her hands hovered in front of her chest, fingers set like claws.
Koujirou decided to stop charging at her and actually ran at her, feinting a slash a diagonal slash before changing it into another horizontal slash.

She parried that, of course, but he didn't stop. With a quick movement, he shifted his sword back and slashed at her again, only to be parried again. Faster and faster, he struck at her only to have his attacks deflected and batted aside without effort. Anna's gauntlets were covered in what seemed to be small plasma emitters that she activated whenever she parried his blows, so he was not even managing to damage her Impeller Field with his efforts.

Frustrated, he went for an overhead slash that she blocked with her left hand, leaving him open to her counter. She thrust her hand at his chest, her fingers open like claws, and delivered a point blank burst of plasma that sent him flying.
Still dazed, Koujirou hit the ground and rolled for a dozen meters before he managed to stop himself with the help of his thrusters.
He looked back and saw that Anna was still in the same place as before, her right arm still extended and waiting for him to get up.

'That girl,' He thought, 'is a monster.' Her punch was quick, precise and very, very powerful. With her first attack she had managed to destroy over a third of his Impeller Field's strength. He decided her really didn't want to get hit again,

He ran at Anna again, but just before he entered striking distance he fired his thrusters, suddenly moving to her left and behind her. he turned around and slashed at her, but Anna was faster. As if by reflex, she grabbed his sword and broke it in half with a burst of plasma.
They both stopped to stare at each other. Koujirou lifted what remained of his blade and looked at Anna.

"...Nice Knife?" She actually sounded embarrassed, for once. With a sigh, Koujirou absorbed what remained of the sword and sat on the ground.

"Anna..." He began. "Let's stop here for now, okay? I don't think I can fight without a new sword."
She nodded, and he took that as a sign he could dematerialize his Valkyrie.

As soon as she dematerialized hers as well, he asked "Where the hell did you learn to fight like that? and where did you get those beam gauntlet things?" He didn't recall her using anything like them in her admittedly extensive and very effective arsenal, and he was certain she didn't know Kung Fu.

She seemed to hesitate for a moment before sitting as well and speaking. "...A few of the Instructors took me to watch movies with them. For some reason, they are rather fond of Bruce Lee, and gave me a few copies of his movies to watch in my spare time." She seemed faintly embarrassed with the admission, but continued to speak nonetheless. "And I prepared those weapons for specifically for your training. They are a variation of my usual Plasma Beam Emitters, and I found that configuration to be rather effective at stopping Zero Range attacks." And now that the topic shifted to weaponry she's back to normal.

"Wait." Koujirou could feel that headache coming back. "You mean you actually learned Kung Fu by watching movies and came up with an entirely new, complex weapon just for a training match?" He asked.

Anna actually seemed not to understand why he asked that. She tilted her head and said "...Yes? That is indeed what I just said."
And there was the headache, here in full force. He massaged his temples and muttered something about crazy girls and their crazy bullshit, while poor Anna just looked at him thoroughly confused.

Koujirou, she decided, was a bit weird.

----------

Fight scenes are hard to write. I'd have continued the fight after Koujirou's sword breaks by having his Valk Core give him rocket punches and kicks, Gilgamesh style, while Anna went Full Beowulf, with some of Raiden's fist fight with Armstrong thrown in for flavor. Sadly, it's way too late and I'm way too shitty at combat scenes to write that right now. Also, because Koujirou can't handle taking hits like Raiden can right now.

I may try writing something like their final training session before the tournament and go Full Stylish there, but I'll wait until I after I play some DMC to get more inspiration and after I read a few good fighting scenes to see if I can get mine to flow better.

But before any of that, Sleep. Good night, gentlemen.

 

[Alfa290]

Spoiler: It's a Start

It's a Start
-----

A group of men and women in ragged and torn military uniforms stood around a table. Most were lower NCOs and enlisted with only a couple officers. All of them were contemplating the massive maps and accompanying sand table they had laid out.

The sand table was a close representation of the Las Vegas valley. The maps on the walls showed Las Vegas proper, North Las Vegas, Henderson, and Boulder City. All where covered in scribbles and objects representing pockets of survivors and Ants.

It was three months since the massacre at McCarran. Since then most the survivors had been moved under the cover of night further south to the ruins of the Hoover Dam. Gibson had scouted the region out early on, and had found that the Ants had shelled the place beyond recognition. Other than that though, they had completely ignored the hundred year old power plant.

The Resistance on the other hand, saw a golden opportunity to set up shop. Many on the dam's underground facilities had been left untouched. With the use of the Valkyries to move the equipment there, the ruins could feasibly hold all three thousand survivors that had been found with room to spare.

"It could be a trap," one of the Sergeants spoke up.

"How? There weren't any patrols in the area. Our watch crews haven't seen a single Ant on the hills around the Dam and every report we have says they care more about the solar farm along the 15 than the old dam," a second lieutenant said.

The man with the highest rank there, Colonel Wilkins said, "And that just might be the problem. They're making the area too appealing for us. Guaranteed shelter, fresh water, and in what should be a defensible location. But they know it's there, and they could be waiting for us to take the bait before going for the killing blow."

A captain from the signal company looked rather dubious about the situation. "Respectfully sir, where the hell else could we go? There isn't enough room in the old fallout shelters, no one here has a cellar and the ground is too damn tough to cut through so we can't just make them ourselves. Where are we going to put these people?"

"We could move them north toward Nellis. They do have all those bunkers buried out there from the Cold War," a specialist pointed out.

"There's three problems with that soldier. One, how are we going to get water up there? Two, does anyone have the locations of these bunkers? And three, that would mean moving civilians back through the center of an Ant infested city center. No, Nellis is off the table."

The captain from earlier spoke up again, "Specialist Wallace might be on to something, sir. Nellis might be off the table, but if we follow the mountains around the valley and head towards California we could get water from the streams up there."

As the back and forth continued over whether or not to continue the move to Hoover Dam Sergeant Ramsey stared at the wall map. Pretty much anywhere near the Colorado River could function as a hideout with adequate water supplies. Then it struck him like a bolt from the blue.

"Sir, have any of the Valkyries integrated any earth moving or digging equipment?" Sergeant Ramsey asked. The Colonel raised an eyebrow and looked around the table for who might have an answer. Taking that as a cue a sergeant spoke up.

"Yeah, Chow was helping build subdivisions up in North town. Why do you ask?"

"Because with Valkyrie upgrades they might be good enough to dig through the rock."

A solid minute of silence followed as the assembled soldiers mulled it over.

"Well, it's a start," the colonel said.

 

[Elvarein]

She sits on the bed in the darkened room.

Still. Silent. Her face blank.

Almost a statue, if not for the almost imperceptible movement of her chest. Her head is bowed. Her eyes closed. Two hands cradle a small crystalline box affixed with a rather misshapen flower that glints in the feeble light of the lamp by her bed.

"Its supposed to be a Delphinium," He had stuttered when presenting it. "I want to wish you joy in your life."

She had thought it foolish at that time. How could a flower represent a quality or a wish? Had simply marked it down to a quirk or strangeness that made up the existence called Koujiro. Perhaps even some sort of sickness. She feels a lip quirk before she stills it.

"Are you well Koujiro? Are you perhaps having a fever?"

They had all laughed then, when she had provided her eminently logical thought process. It was not unkind, and he had simply smiled at her...

Ah, why is her body shaking? She... should be happy for him... and her. They are her friends. Her beloved friends. Yet why is it so painful?

She must have have caught it from them, this sickness, if simply remembering his smile makes her so...

She blindly, urgently turn to the table by the bed, the box almost falling from her traitorous, trembling hands there. In the lamplight, two tracks of tears shine on her face momentarily as she desperately turns away from the light. She flings herself face down. Free hands desperately clutching onto the blankets.

The light goes off with a thought.

And then.

She weeps.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On why having not being chosen as the waifu can destroy your laifu.

In all seriousness though, this is a fantastic quest. With excellent writing and I hope to see your next update soon ;p

 

[samdamandias]

Koujiro dreams. A hiss of static, and something feels off. Deep inside the core, long-disused relays click into place.

He is watching something through the HUD of a dead Valkyrie. He recognizes the name and number.

His own face fills the view. Or at least, his own face if he were five years older, fifteen pounds lighter, and been dragged backwards through hell.
"Valkyrie Lt. Rokusabe calling Command. Valkyrie Lt. Rokusabe calling Command.

"I don't know if this message will reach Command. Sanchez says she thinks she can bounce the signal off a parallel timeline or something like that. I don't know how it works, and we aren't going to transmit the details in case the enemy can crack our crypto.

"It has been seventeen days since my flight was forced down behind enemy lines. As far as I know, two of the ships from Site Twelve made it past lunar orbit. It is my solemn duty to report that Shuri Kravala was killed in action. Valkyrie core and frame salvaged, remainder scuttled. Field burial with full honors. If it were not for her bravery, I don't think any ships would have made it out.

"We intend to engage in a campaign of guerrilla warfare and sabotage as we head towards Site Fourteen. No idea if we will make it before the launch. If we can't make it to any launch in time, we will fight a rearguard action as long as we can. The final contingency is for Sanchez to recover our cores and slowboat towards a certain destination.

"Information that I can send is by necessity limited, but thank god for Sandra's mental mods. I think she's the only thing keeping us from losing what little coherency we have left.

"We are the first and last line of defense. We are the choosers of the slain. And it is my opinion as flight leader that we are totally fucked."

 

[UnnamedDude]

My feels are overloaded right now, have a fluffy filler.

Spoiler

The Academy was the garden in which the brightest, best hopes for the survival of humanity were raised and cultivated, Aces of renown, warriors without peer, choosers of the dead. In a word, Valkyries.

Yes, these children would go on to do battle against the menace that ground against humanity, the Antagonists that sought to destroy them and take the planet as their own. Some of them already had and had been noticeably affected by the experience, if not scarred and broken.

Yet, children were still children. They still had to enjoy themselves while they could, before this world, this war that they never wanted, began to chew them up like so many merciless gears.

To that end there was always at least one field trip per year. This year's took them to the beach. Strings had been pulled, a small window of opportunity to bring the student body there and numerous checks for one that was safe.

Now, the interesting thing about the Academy was its strong skew towards females in its student population. Males with the aptitude to pilot a Frame were very rare and formed an infinitesimal portion of the student body.

This is the situation under which one Koujirou Rokusabe found himself in what was, depending upon interpretation, either soft sunny heaven or burning, tugging hell.

Under such conditions, love triangles (or worse, more complex shapes) had become distressingly common in the Academy, and this boy had managed to get himself entangled in a rapidly-developing one. Or several. He, naturally, hadn't a single clue.

That mostly left the girls around him, be they his Flight or not, to engage in subtle, secret combat. Setsuna had pressured him into a volleyball match. Yukari had crept away to secure shaved ice, since she already knew what flavors everyone liked. Shuri had insisted he lend his opinion on her Flight drills (and permutations therein to take advantage of all the sand and surf they suddenly found themselves in), and Aleksandra found herself enthralled by the simple pleasures of a day at the beach with friends, to the point where everyone struggled to keep up with her.

Anna Sanchez was silently scanning the horizon, the waves. It was beautiful, but it had lost its charm after an hour or so. Still, it took her attention off of... this.

She had wanted to wear something more conservative, something more practical here. But for reasons unknown Durga had proven very insistent on this one, a red bikini that left her feeling altogether too vulnerable. This was easy to move in, but on the battlefield even small things made the difference between life and death. She did not know what her frame was after, here...

"Pretty, isn't it?" That was Koujirou's voice. She turned. There was that disarming cheer again. How was one to deal with that?

"Koujirou." She nodded, though she did not know what else to say.

"Hey, Anna, I know you're still adjusting," said the boy, "but do you want to come with us? It can't be that much fun alone." After a moment he seemed to realize what he'd said and hastily added, "Yuka-nee's got great taste in shaved ice, and Shuri's talking my ear off about how she has to have your thoughts too." He extended a hand to her.

Anna froze, hesitating at the gesture. After a moment's deliberation she took it. It was strangely warm...

Baby steps, Anna, came Durga's gentle and unsaid encouragement, baby steps.

Not sure if I did very well with the characterization, but...
...
Also Koji's profile changed!

…I think I hurt him… but he's alright now. He doesn't blame me.

Click to shrink...

This is a good thing.